Cambridge, MA – Bruner/Cott & Associates, a design firm with emphasis on large institutional projects and urban development, announced the topping out of its 93,000sf, five-story Sumner M. Redstone Building at the Boston University (BU) School of Law. Located west of the Law Tower, the new state-of-the-art gateway structure will house the majority of the law school’s classrooms. It is a resulting project of the firm’s 2008 preservation and development master plan for the school, which also addresses five 1960s buildings designed by twentieth-century modernist Josep Lluis Sert.
Phase One includes the construction of the five-story Sumner M. Redstone Building adjacent to the existing Law School Tower. It will be visually compatible with the historic Sert structures but not seek to replicate their design. Facing a paved entry forecourt off the main east-west pedestrian path, it will feature an expansive entrance with a welcoming glass-enclosed atrium that will serve as the heart and social hub of the wider law school complex.
The space between the Law Tower and Sert’s Pappas Library will be redesigned to emphasize the visual connection between the original and new entrance to the school. Student locker facilities, lounges, a small dining facility, and other student function and informal meeting spaces will be located throughout the building. The facility will also increase study space and provide new areas for clinical, transactional and professional training programs.
Completion is expected in June 2014.
Phase Two of the project involves a full restoration and renovation of the existing 180,000sf facility originally built in 1962 and includes the conversion of the Law Tower’s antiquated classroom spaces into faculty offices with Charles River views. This work will repair the building’s exposed, cast-in-place concrete façade and aggregate precast exterior that has not weathered well over time due to the negative effects of rainwater absorption and rust.
New steel-framed windows and metal accent panels will be added, and will be similar in design to the originals, but comply with today’s more contemporary energy codes. The building’s entire infrastructure will be replaced, including life safety systems and interiors. Upgrades to the building’s energy performance and efficiencies will be completed as well. The building is targeted for LEED® Gold certification.
Expert in adaptive reuse design for mid-century modern buildings, this is Bruner/Cott’s second project for Boston University. The builder for the project is SKANSKA USA.